{"id":6395,"date":"2020-01-24T22:27:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-25T04:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arch.tamu.edu.staging2.juiceboxint.com\/news\/2020\/01\/24\/do-crash-articles-affect-road-safety-of-walkers-and-bicyclists\/"},"modified":"2022-06-28T12:10:04","modified_gmt":"2022-06-28T17:10:04","slug":"do-crash-articles-affect-road-safety-of-walkers-and-bicyclists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arch.tamu.edu\/news\/2020\/01\/24\/do-crash-articles-affect-road-safety-of-walkers-and-bicyclists\/","title":{"rendered":"Do crash news articles affect the road safety of walkers, bicyclists?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite an ever-rising number of pedestrian and bicyclist deaths on U.S. roads each year, there\u2019s no widespread public pressure to improve road safety \u2014 a situation influenced by how news articles about auto-pedestrian\/bicyclist crashes are written, said Tara Goddard, Texas A&M assistant professor of urban planning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdopting simple improvements in crash reporting offers a potentially powerful tool to shift public awareness of traffic crashes from unfortunate, isolated events to a preventable public health issue,\u201d said Goddard in a paper describing the first-of-its-kind study<\/a> she led with a team of Rutgers University planning and public policy scholars.<\/p>\n

The study gauged perceptions of subjects who read articles about crashes with slight, but significant wording changes that changed the focus of the article from the pedestrian\/victim to the car\/driver.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the first study to demonstrate that patterns in crash reporting influence readers\u2019 interpretation of what happened and who bears responsibility for the crash.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found that shifting from pedestrian- to driver-focused language reduced victim-blaming and increased perceived blame for the driver,\u201d said Goddard.<\/p>\n

In the articles, for example, \u201cA pedestrian was hit and killed by a car\u201d was changed to \u201cA car hit and killed a pedestrian.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another example: \u201cA car jumped the curb\u201d was changed to \u201cA driver drove over the curb.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still another example: \u201cA pedestrian was hit and killed\u201d was changed to \u201cA pedestrian was hit and killed by a car.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the potential to save lives and prevent injury on a large scale, implementing more intentional writing patterns may be nothing less than an ethical imperative,\u201d said Goddard, who led the study with Rutgers colleagues Kelcie Ralph, Calvin Thigpen and Evan Iacobucci.<\/p>\n

Goddard\u2019s research focuses on \u201cvulnerable\u201d road user safety such as pedestrians and bicyclists, autonomous vehicle technology and driver behavior, auto driver cognition and attention, traffic safety and crash reduction, and sustainable transportation design.<\/p>\n

For more information, contact rnira@arch.tamu.edu<\/a> or doswald@tamu.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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